Last month, I received several letters about Pete Miner's "Miner Thoughts" column. One writer went so far as to suggest I boot Pete from the staff. Pete's not alone. I received my share of "hate mail" for various opinions I've expressed, like how I felt that Guy Kawasaki was somewhat responsible for the email actions of his readers. In the October, 1997 issue (#30), one reader was "...outraged you are doing this "campaign" against Apple." Yup, I have seen and heard it all due to my opinions :-) Personally, I love it if I write something that can get your blood boiling. It tells me I did something right!

To make it very clear, let me explain what My Mac is, and why no writer will ever get kicked out for voicing his or her opinion:

My Mac is a free magazine. We do not pay our writers anything. Nor do I hand out assignments or topics for the writers to write about. I do not tell Mike Gorman what type of cover I want. In fact, about the only thing we editors do is check for spelling errors, grammar, etc. We do not edit content (unless it is something totally inappropriate).

It is this "hands off" approach to the talented writers and artists that I feel has contributed to our success. We give our talent free rein, letting them pick and choose what they are going to write, and giving them the confidence that if they write something that angers a lot of people, the editors will stand behind them. I will stand behind any writer, and his/her freedom of speech, 100% of the time.

Now, that is not to say that I will let them do anything they want. If Jeramey Valley (Tech Tips) wanted to submit a list of commercial or shareware serial numbers for an article he is writing, I would not allow that to happen. Our goal is to provide articles and information that we think people want to see in My Mac.

My Mac is, IMHO, a mecca for the freelance writer. We service the Macintosh community as Mac users, not a publishing house going for the advertising dollar. We won't close up shop tomorrow is all our sponsors decided to pull their support. In fact, I would hope more companies would want to sponsor a magazine like ours, for just the reasons I listed above.

So, send in your letters, let me know when I get your blood pumping because I wrote a bone-headed article. I want to know! I also hope you email any writer in My Mac if he/she does the same. But know that I will never ask any one of them to leave for voicing their opinion. Hey, that's what makes a magazine great, isn't it?
(Tim)

Viruses, we have viruses...
Am I becoming paranoid or are we suddenly experiencing something that Mac users are not accustomed to... viruses. It started with the macros that have sprung from Word documents and now we have "worms." Again, it started with just one worm, known as the AutoStart Worm... now we're up to version F!

Have any of you noticed that this sudden onslaught of viruses began to surface just after Apple turned itself around and began to show a profit? That suddenly after losing developers for software, the changes made to save Apple have resulted in software developers returning, new ones coming onboard... and new viruses appearing. Does the sudden popularity of Apple mean that we've finally "made it" like Windows has, to be cursed by innumerable viruses caused by people with nothing better to do with their lives?

Again, I would like to remind Mac users to check their antivirus programs and make sure that they are current and can handle the latest bugs floating around out there. Better safe than sorry! Here are some of the signs and symptoms as listed on the virus update on MacFixIt at http://www.macfixit.com

"Worm infested computers will periodically bog down with a huge amount of disk and network activity. After 1 to 2 minutes of seeming to be frozen, normal use returns until the next episode, perhaps 10 minutes later. If you aren't on a network, you won't be tipped off by the little network activity arrows constantly blinking during a seizure, and if you have an internal hard disk without an activity light (or Norton's DiskLight or AlSoft's DiskFlash) you may not become aware of the periodic slowdown is from disk activity there. What you will notice is that your computer periodically goes catatonic, and then recovers for several minutes until the next episode."

Several readers note a problem where their Mac freezes. A "force quit" then results in the following message: "Do you want to force "Desktop Print Spooler" to quit? Any time you see this name, you have the AutoStart worm!
(Russ)

Tim Robertson
publisher@mymac.com
Russ Walkowich
editor@mymac.com